A content display system has widely spread. Display devices included in the content display system such as interactive display devices displaying various content screens are placed at various spots in a site, and various kinds of information is supplied to a large indefinite number of users in the site in accordance with the content screens being displayed on the display devices or various operations based on the content screens. Such systems have widely spread.
There is a known conventional content display system that includes display devices and a display control device that manages and controls the display devices. The display control device causes each display device in a standby state to display an arbitrary standby content screen selected from standby content screens such as content screens for adult males, content screens for adult females, and content screens for children. When a usage starting operation is detected from one of the display devices, the display control device causes the display device to stop displaying the currently displayed standby content screen (according to Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication Nos. 2003-323458 and 2004-185456, for example).
By the above conventional content display system, however, a standby content screen is set for each of the display devices. When a usage starting operation is detected from a display device that is in a standby state and is displaying an arbitrary standby content screen, the display of the standby content screen on this display device is ended. If the standby content screen has a high degree of importance, and there is only one display device displaying this standby content screen, for example, users might lose the opportunities for viewing this important standby content screen due to the usage start of this display device.